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Nothing reht before her departure, Alicia visited her daughter’s grave She did not want to do this at the last second; her exit should be clean For two years the place had gone uned felt wrong With the last of her steel, she’d fashioned a cross She used the haround and knelt in the dirt The body would be nothing now Perhaps a few bones, or an ihter had passed into the soil, the trees, the rocks, even the sky and ani Her untested voice was in the songs of birds, her cap of red hair in the flas, one hand touching the soft earth But she had no more prayers inside her The heart, once broken, stayed broken

"I’ dawned unreray, the air compacted with mist The sword, sheathed in a deer-hide scabbard, lay across her back at an angle; her blades, tucked in their bandoliers, were cinched in an X over her chest Dark, gogglelike glasses, with leather shields at the te in place and swung onto Soldier’s back For days he’d roa what I think we’re doing? I rather like it here, you know Her plan was to ride east along the river, to follow its course through the mountains With luck, she’d reach New York before the first leaves fell

She closed her eyes, e her mind Only when she had cleared this space would the voice ee It came fro into her ear

Alicia, you are not alone I know your sorrow, because it’sfor you, Lish Come to me Come home

She tapped Soldier’s flanks with her heels

2

The day was just ending when Peter returned to the house Above hiers of color against the deepening blue An evening in early autuhts were cold, the days still fair Heriver, his pole over his shoulder, the dog a were two fat trout, wrapped in golden leaves

As he approached the far from the house He re, and eased inside A the door He moved in quietly behind her So total was her concentration that she failed to notice his entry He listened without htly to the ersthe notes as calling the was like a sonic embodiment of pure emotion There was a deep heartache inside its phrases, but the feeling was expressed with such tenderness that it did not see into the past, beco had ended without his noticing As he placed his hands on her shoulders, she shifted on the bench and tilted her face upward

"Come here," she said

He bent to receive her kiss Her beauty was astonishing, a fresh discovery every time he looked at her He tipped his head at the keys "I still don’t kno you do that," he said

"Did you like it?" She was s all day"

He told her he did; he loved it It s, he said It was hard to put into words

"Hoas the river? You were gone a long while"

"Was I?" The day, like so many, had passed in a haze of contentuess I just lost track" He kissed the top of her head Her hair was freshly washed, s of the herbs she used to soften the harsh lye "Just play I’ll get dinner going"

He h the kitchen to the back door and into the yard The garden was fading; soon it would sleep beneath the snow, the last of its bounty put up for winter The dog had gone off on his own His orbits ide, but Peter never worried; always he would find his way home before dark At the pump Peter filled the basin, removed his shirt, splashed water on his face and chest, and wiped hi off the hillsides, lay long shadows on the ground It was the tied into one another, everything held in suspension As the darkness deepened he watched the stars appear, first one and then another and another The feeling of the hour was the sa:and an ending joined